Tag: taproom

The wife and I finally had some time to do a little brewery tourism recently and decided to hit a new place that I’d heard about, but hadn’t yet been able to visit: Back Channel Brewing. Located in Spring Park, MN which is along the shores of Lake Minnetonka, Back Channel Brewing is a small brewery that boasts an amazing taproom, with open air views of the water. The day we visited it was one of the first 75 degree days of spring, so of course we grabbed a seat near the open patio.

In keeping with the nautical, lake-life ambiance, Back Channel does a nice selection of lighter lagers and ales, perfect for sipping on the shore. That’s not to say that they don’t have anything darker and richer, but I applaud them for trying to win people over to craft beer by brewing something familiar. I ordered up a flight of four beers and took a seat overlooking the lake.

I decided to keep most of my flight light, and got their SheeCat Leichtbier, Horny Sidekick American Light Lager and Alfred’s Blonde Ale. I also got their Crooks Haven Irish Stout on Nitro as a finisher. Right off the bat I was impressed with the brew quality of the lighter beers. It was obvious that they know how to build a solid flavor profile into a brew that is under 4% ABV. Each of these three lighter beers were solid, and I could easily see myself knocking back a couple of them on a beautiful summer night.

Once I finished these three lighter beers I got a short pour of their NE Pale Ale, which was an incredibly juicy ale. It had all the standard characteristics of a hazy pale ale, and it had a strong astringent taste to it that signified that the haze was coming from hops, which is what it should be in this beer style. It was really nice to drink, but it’s a beer style that isn’t going to last long, so hopefully they’ll work through their batch before the sediment drops and the flavor dissipates.

I finished off my beer tour with the Irish Stout, which was super smooth and dry, making it an excellent beer to complete the day. They also had a food truck there which specialized in making beer infused eats. Specifically they did some amazing chili that I got over some nachos. Along with a super soft pretzel, our food tummies were just as satisfied as my beer one.

The drive to Back Channel is down a single road through the lake, so it can get a little crowded on the weekends, but if you’re heading down this way, just enjoy taking your time and soak in the views. There are some incredible houses, and because of the economic nature of the area you might even see a Lamborghini or two. A sunny spring afternoon makes for a perfect backdrop to check this place out. Additionally, the Dakota Rail Trail is nearby if you want to bike on over from the Wayzata area.

Although a bit out of the way to be a regular stopping off point for us, I can certainly see heading out to Back Channel again in the future. It’s a beautiful area, and the beer is solid. Everything that makes a good taproom a place worth coming back to.

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The Twin Cities brewery and taproom market has exploded over the past 7 years, and one of the most common questions that people ask is if we’re approaching saturation. As a case in point, on multiple occasions my Beer & Bikes group that I ride with will hit multiple breweries in an evening. If we discover that the brewery we’re at for the evening is doing an event (or Trivia that we’re not interested in participating in) we’ll just have one, and then bike a couple blocks away, and sure enough there’s another brewery.

Despite a few areas being a bit more saturated than others, I still don’t think we’ve hit actual saturation yet though. That’s because until every city/neighborhood has a brewery to call it’s own, there’s still room for growth. For many people, the brewery taproom is a place to gather and be with other people. Similar to how a coffee shop serves as a gathering spot, the brewery taproom can be a central community spot for an area. Similar to how the traditional pub in the UK seems to function.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed to hear that my area would be getting a taproom, just 3 miles by bike from my house. I was also excited to hear that they would be specializing in more English style beers, which are some of my favorites. I love beer with solid malt backbone, and ESB’s and Irish Red’s are two of my all time go-to styles.

Torg opened up in 2018, and since then we’ve found ourselves visiting on a regular basis. It’s close enough that we’ll sometimes swing by for a pint on our way back from running errands, or have a spur-of-the-moment gathering with my biking friends. It’s close and comfortable, which makes it a great neighborhood taproom. They have a great patio on the upper level, and despite the noise from the very busy Highway 47 nearby, it’s not objectionable to sit there for long periods of time.

On the topic of beer, I’ve been very happy with the choices they offer. Just like many new breweries, they had a few struggles when they first started, with some text books “new brewer” mistakes, but everything seems to have now settled down into good quality beer. The Woman of the House oatmeal stout is a solid choice for days like yesterday when the wind was howling and snow blowing everywhere. It’s light and flavorful, but feels comforting on a cold day.

The Kilted Yoga Irish Red ale knocked it out of the park for me. It had just a subtle hint of peat, and a solid malt backbone that I love in my Irish reds. Squirrel Nutkin and Bridged’s Bathwater are two other great English style beers with a smooth character, mellow earthly hop profile, and nice low ABV for easy drinking.

There are of course a few issues that I have with some of their beers, in particular the ones that are claimed to be on nitro. They’re not as smooth and creamy as nitro usually should be, and feel like there’s a bit too much CO2 still adding carbonation in them. It’s gotten better over time, but I still feel like this is one area of improvement. I’m also not a huge fan of some of the hops that have been chosen for some of their new beers. I’m sensitive to certain hop families like Simcoe and Falconer’s Flight, which both taste like a cat litter box smell to me. This is my issue, but I feel like a couple of their newer beers are giving me this type of flavor, and I’d love it if their next new one didn’t have this same issue.

A couple of niggles aside, I am overall impressed by Torg Brewing. I think they’re putting together a solid lineup of good tasting beer. Along with the fact that they’re right in my neighborhood means that they’re quickly becoming one of a few go-to places when I’m thirsty for a nice taproom.

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I don’t exactly recall if I’ve talked about this before on the blog so directly, but I feel like I need to say something about the rise of bad craft beer lately. It’s something that I’ve been seeing more and more of as small little breweries pop up all over the place, trying to get a piece of the pie. It’s more apparent in suburban breweries, or outstate ones, but sometimes there’s even an inner city one that doesn’t do great.

Those bad inner city breweries are rare though because they can’t survive in a market where there is competitors every few blocks. If you’re serving truly bad beer in NE Minneapolis, you’re going to be laughed out of the neighborhood before you’re open a month. Most breweries in the cities aim for mediocrity, which gets them by and doesn’t single them out as someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

However, when you get out of town a bit, and get into areas where there is only one brewery for miles around, it’s a different story. A few months ago I visited a brewery in Pine City called Three Twenty Brewing. They’re the only game in town, and the quality of their beer showed it. There was a paper-y, oxidized taste to much of their beer, and it didn’t make me ask for seconds.

This past weekend we headed down to a new place in Prior Lake called Boathouse Brothers Brewing. It was their opening weekend, and so they were packed with people. I got a flight and was immediately met with some truly badly brewed beer. There was almost no carbonation, and the flavors were all over the map. I didn’t even finish my flight.

I had also somewhat recently visited Blue Wolf Brewing in Brooklyn Park, and my initial impression was that it wasn’t too bad. Not outstanding, but passable. I was there during their opening week, and then a month later some friends visited and immediately texted me asking how I could have rated their beers so high. I stopped by this past weekend again and was floored by how much their beer had changed, and how completely terrible it had become.

In all of these cases, I think I know what the primary problem is. You have home brewers who can brew a decent beer, and then think that they can take on a full industrial system. However, things don’t scale up like you would think, and most non-trained brewers have no idea how to fix it. The paper-y taste in Pine City is probably due to bad processes that are letting air into the beer. The Boathouse Brother’s issues are a lack of understanding on how to carbonate beer at commercial scale. Blue Wolf is most likely an issue with poor fermentation practices and sanitization. These are all things that require training and experience to learn how to deal with. Simply brewing on a homebrew system is completely inadequate to learning how to run a production beverage facility.

It’s sad to see people drinking up these bad beers because they’re the only game in town. They don’t have other options, and so they’re stuck with either traveling to the cities, or suffering through someone learning their craft over months of practice, at the expense of their patrons. I get the desire to want to have a fun local taproom in your community. But people need to demand better than a job-training site for homebrewers. We need to insist that people hire trained and competent brewers to run these systems, or at least mentor homebrewers into how to use them successfully.

Let’s not settle for flawed beer. As craft beer fans, lets insist that people deliver on their promise to bring good craft beer to their communities. It takes time, knowledge, and training, but in the end it makes the craft beer community a better and stronger place.

You all probably know how much I love visiting new breweries. I love the craft beer scene that we have here in the Twin Cities, and heck, even all over Minnesota. I love craft beer, and you guys have done an amazing job bringing high quality brews to the world at large. I love sampling all the new stuff you brew; weird concoctions (that sometimes don’t work out), and amazing new recipes that blow my tastebuds away.

You know what else I love? Hanging out in a comfortable taproom. I love sitting with friends and spending a couple hours just talking about life, politics, art, music… whatever. There’s nothing quite like a great taproom environment to help someone relax and enjoy themselves, either alone or in the company of others. Heck, I spend almost every Wednesday night of my life visiting different taprooms with friends (usually on bike), just because we want an excuse to hang out.

When I travel, I ensure that I hit at least a couple breweries on my trip. I love seeing what the beer scene is like outside of my Twin Cities bubble. In fact, my Untappd unique beer count goes through the roof whenever I travel, which is incredibly fun to see. Even when I’m not traveling, one of the regular activities with my wife is to visit a taproom, just to hang out. She knows how much I love craft beer, and trying new beers, and despite the fact she doesn’t drink, she loves being in a beautiful taproom and being together.

You know what I don’t like? When a brewery doesn’t think about the non-drinkers, and the designated drivers, in the groups of people who show up. I realize that you make almost no money on any soft drinks that you sell, but you also know what? If you don’t have non-alcoholic options available it makes it a hell of a lot less likely that my wife and I are going to spend time there. There’s nothing worse than sitting in a beautiful taproom, enjoying some amazing beer, and feeling awkward as my non-drinking spouse and friends sit patiently sipping their room temperature water.

And you know what else? I’m not asking for you to expand your horizons to weird and experimental craft sodas. My son could care less about your “IPA of sodas” made with lime and tonic water (it tasted like s**t). My wife doesn’t need your guava infused, rose-petal, cranberry kombucha soda hybrid garbage. They just want a solid root beer, Coke, or 7-Up. They’re not there to experience some incredible new flavor of pop. They’re there to hang out with friends who like craft beer.

No one is asking you to enter a new market segment. Really, it’s not that hard. Just run down to the local gas station and pick up a couple cases of some different flavors of pop and stick them in a cooler. That’s all. No one is going to think any less of your hipster, craft beer-cred because people can also ask for a can of Diet Coke or a La Croix. Those designated drivers and non-drinkers just want to hang out in your cool taproom with their friends and family. They want to experience the cool environment you’ve created. They’re not asking for much, just something simple to drink.

Oh and get this… if you want me, the craft beer drinker, to spend more money? Give my group a reason to stay longer. If my non-drinking friends who are hanging out with me have something to drink, I’m going to keep spending money, and drinking more of your beer. Isn’t that what you want?

</rant>

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Something I lamented about in the past was how much I love having that “regular” place to hang out and have a beer. When we were in Grand Marais for a week, I loved going to Voyageur Brewing every day after work to have a bit of beer and a snack before we headed out to dinner. You get to know the people there, and it becomes just a really nice way to wind down after the work day. The surrounding becomes comfortable and relaxing, and you stop worrying about if they have “yet another new beer you haven’t tried”. Unfortunately, our neighborhood doesn’t have one of those places yet, and so I’m left wanting.

One thing that I have been doing is starting to hit a place in downtown Minneapolis on the one day a week when I work down there. Inbound brewing company started it’s life as Lucid brewing, but changed it’s name when it moved into the North Loop. They have a beautiful taproom, and the beer and bike group that I ride with often will stop by there, especially if we need a backup place for some reason.

It’s nice to end the day with a quick drink in a comfortable place. Usually it’s just a small 4oz taster, since I need to catch a train to get home very shortly after work, but it’s more about “being” someplace on a regular basis. Getting a chance to just unwind for a few moments and feel like you’re in a neighborhood place. A comforting space, with friendly faces can do wonders to make you feel relaxed.

Hopefully, one day I’ll live somewhere with a nice brewery and taproom nearby that I can partake of on a regular basis. Until then, at least I have my once-a-week regular hangout spot.